Feisty Zaria

Happy New Year to everyone.

Ever since we gave Zaria the barista title, she makes coffee or tea for me daily.

Yesterday after breakfast, I asked her for my cup of coffee as usual. Zaria said later. And repeated her 'later' for the next 1hr and eventually did not bother to even reply when I asked about my coffee.

I lost my patience and went downstairs, to see her lying on the sofa reading.
Me : From 9 till 10:30 I asked for my coffee, and you kept saying later, and then didn't even answer me any more! Today is my 1st day of work, you are still on holidays, and you can't even make your mom a cup of coffee? Do you have anything to say?
Zara : Sorry ma, what do you want ma? Do you want me to make a cup of coffee or tea for you?
Zaria : ....
Me : Ok. For lunch, I'm not cooking for you, and Auntie (our helper) cannot cook for you too. You go and figure out what to eat. There's lots of cereals and milk.
So I made my own coffee, and thinking Zaria will come over to apologise; but instead, she went to our helper and asked, "Auntie, do we still have mee sedap?"
o.O"

At 12pm, she boiled a pot of water herself, cut opened a pack of mee sedap, and made herself lunch!!
o.O"

While I was eating roast chicken sandwich, and fried button mushroom with Zara at the same table with her, I asked "You can have some if you say something to me."
Slurping her noodle, she said, "Even if I say sorry, I don't really mean it, so what's the point of saying it."
o.O"

That's my 8 year old alright, feisty, independent, non-complying.

Every Child Is A Creator (Of a Gadget)

Unlike most urban kids, our girls don't own an iPad, don't have free access to one (they can only use it as a dictionary freely), and neither can they watch TV as and when they like. They are only allowed TV or the iPad time if they have earned it, such as, they have done a page of writing, or some worksheets I'd given to them, etc.

Today, I went out for a long lunch, and came home to find the girls have created their own toy with a box which was used to deliver my shopping 2 days ago.

They have created a vehicle which they claimed can be converted to a ship, a car, a plane.


With a very special control console.

I asked Zaria who was 'driving' the vehicle, "How can you have games on your console, you can't play games when you are driving."
She said, the car drives automatically without human control.
But of course.

They created a smart phone too with all the Apps they are interested to have.The 1st app on the right on the 2nd row is photo gallery according to Zaria.

The paw is an Apps for animals, and she hasn't figured out what it can do yet.

And of course, how can someone do without an iPad, loaded with all the important Apps.


Love to see the girls do this instead of just being glued to the TV or gadgets.

Learning Biology Through Our Dog Bubbles

Bubbles has been with us for more than half a year now, and the girls treat him like a brother. Our conversation revolves around him a lot, and through him, sometimes Biology is learnt.



One day.
Zaria : Ma, how come Bubbles' penis has so much hair?
Me : Err, because dogs don't wear underwear, the hair is to protect their penis.
Zaria : Oh, he needs hair on the penis so that even when he doesn't wear underwear, people cannot see his penis.
Me : yeah, something like that.

Another day.
Zaria : Ma, Bubbles pole dancing on me.
Me : Bubbles, no pole dancing! Shuu...
(Bubbles climbed down from Zaria, then after a while, climbed on her again)
Zaria : Ma, Bubbles pole dancing again. Now his lipstick is showing.
Me : Bubbles, stop it!
(Bubbles climbed down from Zaria)
Zaria : Ma, why can't you allow him to pole dance on me?
Me : Because he cannot! It's not right.
Zaria : Ma, actually what is he trying to do?
Me : He's trying to mate with you Zaria.
Zaria : But he's so young ma, how can he mate with me?
Me : In animal years, he's old enough.
Zaria : He doesn't know I'm too young to mate is it? And we're not even married. o.O

Quick Witted/Sharp Tongue Zaria Again

These days, Zaria is picking up new words/phrases from the TV, her books, and when she wasn't quite sure what something meant, she asked us, which made her learn them and able to apply them very quickly.

While I was trying out 'nice' dresses, and showed the girls.
Zaria said, "You are so sexy, I don't even think you are cut out for it."
o.O"

While her lunch of noodles arrived pipping hot, I asked her, "Do you need help with the noodle?"
Zaria replied, "I'm not a retard, I can eat on my own."
o.O"

While we were out, the hubs wrapped his arm around me.
Being possessive, she doesn't like others touching me, so she stuck out her tongue and said, "Blech! Please don't swap spit now ok?"
o.O"

We went to the new Baskin Robbins nearby.
I asked her, "What if your Cikgu so and so (BM teacher from school) is also there?"
She replied, "Oh... and then Mr So and So (English teacher from school) will be there too. (She thinks her teacher and cikgu are going out.)
She then added, "Ha.. then I'll tell them, don't do that in front of me, don't make me feel like a third wheel."

Seriously, I didn't think I know how to use those words until after I became an adult.

一厢情愿

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you'd probably recalled posts about Zara and her very first boy friend; a boy who's captured her heart for 2 years. Even though on her last year of kindergarten, the boy has already went to Standard 1 and attended another school and they never met again, Zara still thought of him as her boy friend. o.O"

After being in Standard 1 for 1 month +, she came home 1 day declaring she has found another 'boy friend'. When I went to pick her up the following day, she excitedly pointed out the 'boy', R, to me. R sits several rows away from her, is really cute, looks like a goodie-two-shoes, with a radiant smile and deep dimples. Well, if I was her age, I'd probably like the same boy too.

A couple of times when I was there to pick Zara up, after the last bell rang, I saw them running out to the waiting area together Zara chasing after him to the waiting area. o.O"

In the car, she likes to share with me what happened to R and herself, here are some to share.

Zara : "Mom, today I kissed R."
Me : *have to sound like it's not a big deal* "You did?"
Zara : "Ya, I did."
Me : "Where did you kiss him?"
Zara : "Well, I blew him kisses." (and she showed me how she did it, 1st kissing her palm, then blowing the kiss out)
Me : (a bit shocked, but found it funny too) "And what did he do?"
Zara : "He dodged them, like this and like this." (moving her body left and right) And she smiled, like it's no big deal he dodged her kisses. o.O"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zara : "Mom, every day I walked out to the hall with R after school"
Me : "You walked side by side?"
Zara : "Oh, well, he ran really fast, and I just chased after him and keep up with him."
o.O"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Me : "Zara, you said R is your boy friend, does he treat you like his girl friend?"
Zara : "Ya, he does, he walks with me after school." (more like she chased after him) o.O"
Me : "And you are his only girl friend?"
Zara : "No, he has 3 girl friends"
Me : "And you are fine with that?"
Zara : "Ya, I'm fine. Because he's not married yet so it's ok to have so many girl friends." o.O"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And the best one.... yesterday on our way home from school.
Zara : *happily*"Today R talked to me."
Me : "Oh, what did you talk about."
Zara : "I touched him, and then he told me 不要摸我 (Don't touch me)." *laughed*
(Faint! This is 'talk'?)
o.O" o.O" o.O"

But........ I'm amazed at her confidence, and her perserverence, and the way she looks at things light heartedly. Way to go my girl!

Brain Connections

If you are my Facebook friend, you have read about Zaria being our new English police.
In a carpool journey home from Zaria’s school, I overheard this conversation between Aidan, who’s my neighbour’s son, and Zaria.
Aidan : No lar. (forgot what prompted him to say that)
Zaria : There's no la in English.
Aidan : What are you saying lar?
Zaria : Hello Aidan, speak Harry Potter English please. There's no lar wor meh in English.
o.O”

~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a different occasion, Zaria was being naughty, and I was scolding her; the more I scolded her the more funny stunts she carried out, and the more I scolded her. Zara gave me the solution. ”Mum, just stop scolding her.”
I replied, “But she’s naughty.”
Zara told me, “But if you keep scolding her, she’ll be naughtier, and you’ll get more stressed. If you stop scolding, she will also stop being naughty.”
There, my new parenting guru.
o.O”


I recently read somewhere that all humans are born with 100 billions brain cell. And for learning to happen, brain cells need to connect. In other words, if I want your children to be smarter, they have to have more brain cells connections. Next time if you want to scold someone chi-sin (痴线), think twice, it might actually be a compliment. :P

Children’s brains are like a sponge, they are hungry for information and knowledge, given the right exposure or stimulus, more brain cells will be connected, and they will be connected tots.

I’m happy to know that breast feeding has a part to play in assisting with this as well. Breast milk is found to have gangliosides, which help brain cells to connect for smarter learning. The girls being both breastfed for 18months, would have been taken lots of gangliosides.

I won’t say my two girls are smart, but I think they are very good in applying what they have learnt (consciously or unconsciously).This in fact indicates, their brain cells are connected, see how they can teach others what they have learnt from their daily lives?

Girls' Chitter Chatter Jan 2011

One day, on our way home from school, Zara was exceptionally quiet while her car pool friends were shouting chatting away.
I asked her if everything was alright or if anything happened in school.
She sighed a big sigh, "I'm so bored in being me."
I asked her why did she say that? Why is she feeling bored.
She replied, "Just because every day I have to repeat everything I do."
o.O"
I have to explain to her life is full of routines, just like us, we have to wake up daily to work, pick the children up from school, etc.
She continued to keep quiet. Then after a few moments she told me, "But.. I'm best at being me. So, I'll continue to be me." And the smiles and chatter box returned. o.O"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zaria was dancing ballet in the house. I had to warn her that she cannot try to walk with her toe pointed (Zara used to do that when she 'danced' the ballet).
Zaria replied, "Ya, only in cartoon you can do that right? Because in cartoon you can do anything."
o.O" Well said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zara attended a friend's birthday party, and she wanted to wear her nicest dress, with lace, ribbons and sewn on sequins.
When she was there, she was playing and doing all kinds of funny stunts. She didn't ruin the dress, but she was drenched in sweat at the end of the party. I told her in the car she shouldn't have worn the beautiful dress, because she was playing like a troll crazy in the party.
She replied, "In a party, you are supposed to have fun and play right? Not sit around and do nothing!"
o.O"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was writing this blog post, and reading aloud the content.
Zaria asked, "Are you telling your invisible friend about me?"
o.O"
Indeed, my blog readers are my invisible friends.